Despite Hiring Local Area Sales Rep, Google Still Not Bringing Fiber To NYC Anytime Soon

Usually a job listing for a sales manager is no big deal. Thousands, if not millions, of similar listings go live every day. But when it’s a regional sales manager for Google Fiber, and the position is Google’s New York City office, the world — especially the corner of it in New York City stuck using crappy broadband — takes notice.

Spotted by Geek.com, the manager position is a full-time job based in Manhattan who will “evangelize Google Fiber services to MDU (multi-dwelling apartments and condos) and large SMB [small and medium business] owners.” New York being chock-full of multi-dwelling apartment buildings, some folks started to get excited.

Alas, it is not to be. Ars Technica got in touch with a Google spokesperson, who told them, “Don’t read into the job listing. We’ve had a full team of folks working on Fiber in the New York office (and other locations around the world) for years. We don’t currently have any plans to bring Google Fiber to New York.”

New Yorkers infamously hate their main ISP, Time Warner Cable, and if offered the chance to jump ship to Google Fiber would no doubt make the move en masse. But even though Google Fiber has announced tentative plans to explore the possibility of adding service to new markets, NYC isn’t on the list.

Nor is it likely to be anytime soon. Laying fiber is expensive, and working out an arrangement with local government is complicated. What’s challenging in Austin, Provo, or Kansas City could easily be insurmountable in Manhattan. Back in February, when Google announced their nine potential new markets, they explained what goes into the decision-making:

We’re going to work on a detailed study of local factors that could affect construction, like topography (e.g., hills, flood zones), housing density and the condition of local infrastructure. Meanwhile, cities will complete a checklist of items that will help them get ready for a project of this scale and speed. For example, they’ll provide us with maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines so that we can plan where to place fiber. They’ll also help us find ways to access existing infrastructure—like utility poles—so we don’t unnecessarily dig up streets or have to put up a new pole next to an existing one.

The ultra-dense island-based five boroughs of New York, home to roughly 8 million people, are basically a living embodiment of those “local factors that could affect construction.” Physical, political, and economic obstacles to wiring up the Big Apple abound, and are unlikely to go away any time soon.